EP.2

EP.2 – Party’s foundation is a Four-man team – Part 2

Though it was April, it was drizzling since morning which made it a bit colder than usual.

“The weather sure doesn’t feel like it’s the day of the battle.”

As for Kishimine, he couldn’t help but feel like that. He understood by now that in real life things won’t always work out as they do in the novels.

As he reached the clubroom door, there was already a visitor waiting there.

It was the person himself who they were battling against, Sugishika Madoka. As he looked at her, she still didn’t appear to him as a high school student. Plus, maybe it was because of the sudden cold today, she was standing with her arms folded around as if embracing her own body, which made her look even smaller. However, standing there in that pose, was highlighting her breast even more, which was very tempting for Kishimine.

“Ah, you’re finally here, huh!? You’re very late, what good would it do if the one who challenged me comes late?”

The moment their eyes met, she suddenly yelled at him. He soon realized that despite her size she was quite strong willed.

“My bad my bad, so you were already here? As it turned out to be a battle with all that development I sort of thought that you won’t be that eager to come here…… Ah, Could it be that Sugishika-san too was looking forward for today’s game battle……?”

Kishimine…, who was so bad at conversing with others, asked her a question.

As he asked that, for some unknown reason Sugishika averted her face as if she was angry.

“I—it’s not like I was looking forward to it or something! It’s just not my style to run away from a battle and also the homeroom got over a bit early than normal today!”

“S—so that how it was, my bad then.”

He asked himself that why did he apologized there but, for the time being he decided to remain quiet and to not intrude any more, as he was scared to make her more angry than she already was at the moment.

“Ah, so it’s locked? But, even I don’t have a key……If Buchou, Sena-sensei or Niitani-san is not here then……”

“Huh—!? What the hell is that!? Geez, how useless!”

Useless. She was being a bit irrational and unreasonable like that but, getting called something like that on his face by a girl was something that occurred for the first time in his life, so he was a little depressed.

However quite fortunately, Tendou and Sena-sensei appeared right after that.

“Both of you were already here, huh? I apologize, I sort of wanted to come early myself but”

Tendou open-heartedly put those words of apology in front of her.

“You guys are really slow! Why should I have to be the one waiting here like that!?”

“Hahaha, Sorry about that!” the one to laugh composedly was none other than Sena-sensei. “Oh that’s right, as an apology let me arrange a spare key of clubroom next time! For Kishimine-kun and Sugishika-kun that is!”

“Eh? Well me aside, Sugishika-san is not a proper club member yet you know—”

The one to say that was Kishimine but, he soon realised that it was something Sena-sensei said to provoke her.

“You sure said that. Do you guys really think that you have any chance of winning against me?”

“Well that will be decided in the game itself. For now just come inside, and let’s begin without wasting any more time!”

And like that, that day’s club became livelier than usual.

◆

“So then, which game are we gonna play for the competition?”

As they came in, Kishimine asked that while putting his bag down.

“About that, after discussing it together with Sena-sensei, we decided to go on with this game today.”

Tendou showed a packet of the game to him.

On the package there was illustration of many soldiers with the gun in the hand lined up together with the military type robots. CERO rating C, a game for 15 years and older. A Futuristic Story that won the first prize for the Japan Game of 2009.

Kishimine read that title out loudly.

“”Lost Planet 2”……is it?”

“It’s called LosPla2 in short!” the one who started to explain things was Sena-sensei. “Genre – TPS, to be precise it’s similar to the Gears of War you have played before!”

“TPS, is it?”

If the name appears casually like that again and again, then obviously Kishimine too would remember it eventually. TPS. Third Person Shooting. In short, game where you can firefight as a third person viewpoint.

“Just like Sugishika-kun told, FPS and TPS are genre that are quite popular in the foreign country! However, this Lost Planet 2 is a game which is made by a famous Japanese Game making company named Capcom. It’s one of the few domestic TPS games that were made and that too is not limited to just shooting randomly from your gun, but is a game where you have to fight fiercely with giant monsters called Akrid, a game where you can really perform various actions such as Anchor Action!”

“Heh……”

A fierce battle with the giant monsters. As he heard about that, he naturally got a bit excited.

“Or rather, what is this?” Sugishika glared him with her cold eyes. “Even though you are Japanese yourself, you are saying that you don’t even know about LosPla?”

“Ah, sorry about that. It’s because I just recently started playing games.”

“……Fighting with someone like me after that, I will praise your courage. Well fine by me, at any rate if it’s a TPS game I have no problem. I will beat the 3 of you altogether in a go!”

“No, I don’t have any intention of making it a competition!”

Tendou said something completely out of the box.

“You can do Co-op with 4 people at once. So we’ll go with that.”

Co-op. It was a word he remembered from the time he practiced playing Gears of War. In short it’s where you play a game cooperating/collaborating with other peoples.

“What’s with that? I’ve never played together with anyone before, and just how are you going to decide black and white?”

“I’ve been thinking about that as well. Forcing you to join will do us no good. And rather it’s much more important to play together first. We leave the judgement to you. If you’re able to trust us, then feel free to join, but, if you’re not then we’ll also stop pressuring you further. When I thought like that, I came to a conclusion that rather than fighting it as a competition. Co-op will be much more convenient.”

“Hmm……, is that so?”

Sugishika changed her viewpoint at the situation a little.

“Well, it will be fine I guess. That’s right, if we are gonna play it anyways, then some hard stage will be the best. It can’t be helped as we have to clear the whole stage first, but choose a map where a boss appears in the end.”

“Yup, very reasonable!” like that Sena-sensei also agreed. “If we’re gonna play it anyways then a famous giant boss of LosPla would be quite good after all! Well then, let’s start from Episode 1’s Chapter 2!”

“Ah, and “Respawn” will be prohibited as well okay? It would be impossible for me to team up with someone who dies easily.

“Ah that too is reasonable, very well then. That will create a nice feeling of tension after all.”

Kishimine sort of understood that Sugishika put up some very absurd conditions.

“U—Umm. What was Respawn again? I’ve a feeling I’ve heard about it somewhere before as well.”

“It’s regarding the revival. In this game one can revive as many times as they want after dying, so we’ll be prohibiting that. Since, there’s no setting option to do it in-game, one would have to manually turn off their console.”

“It’s fine you know, to give up if you want to” said Sugishika. “Let me get this straight, I don’t have any intention of teaming up with someone who can’t even clear a game like this.”

“It’s alright, Kishimine” Tendou tapped on his shoulder. “For you, it’s best to have a bit of tension in the air. You’ll do well without any doubt.”

“I—if you say like that…….I—I understood, I’ll try my best”

He was anxious but, he couldn’t help giving an answer like that.

And like that the stage got set.

The 4 Plasma Display and the 4 PS3 got powered up in the clubroom.

Tendou observed everything with a strange happy look on her face.

“A day like this, where we could use the full feature of this room has finally come.”

Kishimine sort of understood her feelings. This room which only had two gamers till a while ago, it’s potential to have 4 members play at the same time always felt like a useless old treasure that was only decaying.

‘As it has come to this, I’ve to make Sugishika-san join this club by any possible means……!’

If she approves after playing this game then finally they’ll able to officially take part in a Team battle. He was in a lot of confusion given that it was a game he was playing for the first time but, he knew that he had to play his part in the best way possible.

“Ah, that’s right” Sena-sensei raised his voice suddenly. “Tentatively, I and Tendou-kun have their Save data with us but, we will use the weapons and action skills similar to that of an initial stage, its fine like that right?”

“Well I don’t care as we are not gonna score in this anyway. But certainly doing that would be fair alright.”

It seemed that it was a conversation regarding the Game settings, but as usual Kishimine couldn’t grasp anything. Though it would be considered as usual, this kind of atmosphere always made him feel somewhat left out.

“Alright then, everyone sit on the chair you want to sit then! But make sure to sit 1 meter behind the monitor at all cost! It’s a rule for all the gamers.”

Just as he instructed, they started making arrangements grabbing the seat they wanted.

As the clubroom was not that spacious to begin with, they had the Plasma T.V’s and Consoles prepared side by side, alternatively to each other. So, as per his character, he decided to sit at the last seat.

“Uh-oh, that’s my seat, Kishimine-kun!”

But for some unknown reason he got stopped by Sena-sensei, who whispered the next lines close to his ears.

“You should go sit on the chair between those two, I can ensure that it’s quite a view, you know?”

“Huh……?”

He didn’t even slightly get it but, he sat on the pipe chair that was between those two.

‘T—this scene is……!’

He finally understood the meaning behind Sena-sensei’s words. As the seats were arranged alternatively to the 4 Plasma T.V’s, it resulted in making somewhat of a strange view.

First, there was a Plasma T.V. in front of him, on his left and right sides Tendou and Sugishika were seated, and thus the T.V in front of him was acting as a mirror for him and was showing the 2 of them projected through their respective T.V’s

Two high School girls were sitting right beside him. On top of it, the skirt of their school was short. In short, Kishimine was in a situation where he could clearly see their thighs by adjusting his sight a bit.

“…………”

Tendou Shinobu’s silky smooth legs.

And, Sugishika Madoka’s voluptuous and thin white legs.

On top of it, just a slight movement resulted in the space behind those thighs to almost appear.

“Hey, you seem a bit red, are you really okay?”

“Are you perhaps nervous? It’s alright, just play like usual”

“Yes!? Ah, No, I am perfectly fine.”

He shook his head to let go of those sudden worldly desires.

He knew that it’d be quite disastrous if they found out where he was looking a while ago and above all, the game they were gonna play would decide the club’s future. That’s why he can’t just let his mind be occupied with unnecessary things.

“Alright, ladies and gentlemen, shall we start the show then?!”

He might’ve given his seat knowing that this would happen, as he gave the command with a grin on his face.

Soon the game began, and he once again started concentrating on the screen in front of him.

The starting point was a little shed surrounded by a valley.

“Ah, I see, certainly it’s sort of like GearsWar.”
On the screen a soldier like figure with a gun in his hand appeared. In the centre of the screen an icon with a gun aim was there, on the corners of the screen a gauge with “LIFE” written on it, the weapon and grenade icons were also written consecutively, with the numbers which apparently describing the barrel and left grenade count.

“Ah, I forgot to ask before but, how do you operate this? It looks sort of similar to Gears of War to me though.”

“Substantially, it’s quite similar to that” said Tendou. “First as a trial try pressing various buttons. There are times when one is made to play a game totally unknown to him/her in JGBC. So make a habit of learning that on your own from these experiences.”

“All TPS games are almost identical to each other” Sugishika also said. If you press the buttons randomly then you will be able to know how to attack with your gun, how to aim a grenade, how to exchange different weapons or how to jump.”

“I—I see.”

As a trial when he started pressing the buttons, he got to know that certainly the operation system was quite similar to that of Gears of War. You could move with the left stick, and you could change your viewpoint direction with the right stick, with “R1” you could fire from the weapon, and with “X” Button you could jump and could do adjacent firing with the “O” Button.

“And in the end, this is something you might not get unless told! Try pressing the left stick for a moment!”

“Haa”

As he did that, the character crouched at the place he was standing. And as he pressed the stick to move, he even moved in the crouched position.

“If you advance in crouch position, then you would be hard to aim by the enemy! Plus if you press the jump button while in that crouched position then you would be able to perform even the evasion action! Perfect timing on the evasion action makes you literally invincible, so be sure to learn how to do it!”

“I—I see”

While in the crouched position he pressed the “X” button, and as he was told, the character took sort of a defensive pose than before.

“Ummm, then what about this?”

He tried pressing the “L1” after that. As he did that, he threw an orange glowing thing.

“I wonder what that was.”

As he curiously approached the thing he threw.

“Ah, you idiot!”

Sugishika’s small voice resounded—and some kind of explosion happened.

Kishimine, and Sugishika who approached him by accident, got blown off quite a bit from that explosion, and the meter on which LIFE was written decreased a bit which made clear that they took quite some damage from that.

“Whoa! Wo—! That was quite close to death!”

“You got involved into a grenade blast there” said Tendou. “Calm down, as long as you get to use the T-ENG (Thermal Energy) then you can activate your harmoniser and replenish your LIFE.”

“T—Thermal Energy?”

“To put it simply it’s a type of energy that is unique to only this planet. Press and hold the start button”

As he did that, his LIFE meter got filled quite a lot with some sort of smoke sound effect. But in exchange, the value of T-ENG which located on the upper-left corner of the screen reduced a bit.

“I see, so that’s what you mean by using the T-ENG to replenish the LIFE”

“Geez! Be careful from next time! It’s fine as friendly fire is invalid, but if it was not, I would’ve taken quite a lot of damage as well!”

“F—Friendly Fire?”

As he heard a word he had never heard before from the mouth of Sugishika, he like usual turned it into question, and as he did that, as per usual Sena-sensei started explaining about it.

“To put it simply, it is when you accidently shoot or damage your friend with your attack.”

“This time, we’ve made into a setting where you won’t take damage even if something like this would happen! Still, do take care about not doing something like that again, as grenade blast will blow you up just like before!”

“That’s right, be careful! There are cases where a blast will result in you falling into the bottom of a ravine or right into the centre of enemy’s horde.”

“I—I am sorry.”

“Hey, since how long do you guys plan on having a conversation like that that? The enemies are here already!”

“E—Enemy?”

As he looked ahead after getting alerted by Tendou, she was already in battle with the enemy like monsters.

The enemies were of two kinds and that too almost the size of a human being. One kind was of an aerial monster which was fluttering in the air, and the other was a spider like monster which was on the ground. Both were gushing forth one after another from an orange like body—which was probably their nest.

“W—what is that?”

“Akrid, nicknamed AK you see, in short a monster which inhabits this planet! Come now, Kishimine-kun let’s join her in battle!”

“Y—Yes!”

After aiming he pressed the “R1” Button. Fortunately as the aerial and spider monsters were not much powerful, they got finished up easily with the machine gun. Though their count was quite a lot, when hunted by four of them, they were nothing that great. And while they were at it, as they shot the nest like object from where all the AK were coming with their guns, it exploded after shooting some sort of questionable orange looking fluid.

“What is that, orange looking fluid?”

And now he notices that the same orange looking fluid is spilled everywhere from the bodies of all the AK they’ve defeated.

“You really don’t know anything do you……? Picking up anything that drops from an enemy that you defeated! Isn’t that a common sense of all the games?!”

Sugishika touched that orange fluid and as she did that, the fluid got absorbed by the character of Sugishika as if sucked in.

“That is T-ENG (Thermal Energy)” said Tendou. “As it has its worth by just touching, despite of its outward appearance collect the amount you can.”

“Heh…….”

As he touched the liquid personally after being told, the value of T-ENG located on the upper-left screen rose a bit.

‘I see, I’m sort of starting to get it.’

In short, there are monsters on this planet called AK. If you beat up those monsters they drop the energy called T-ENG, which could be used to do several other things such as restoring your LIFE, etc.

“Don’t waste time here and let’s advance to the front as it’s gonna be quite a long journey from here on!”

Sugishika advanced to the front in high spirits. Panicking Kishimine too followed her.

Some sort of giant flood gate was there up ahead in the valley. And up ahead of that gate, was quite a wide river which was flowing.

But at that moment, a system message appeared suddenly on his screen.

“U—mm……, Activate a Data Post? What is this about?”

“Aah, it’s about this!”

Sena-sensei started running. The way he was headed, had this scarlet coloured cylindrical object lying on the ground. However, the AK were swarming around the post.

“I and Sugishika will take care of those AK. You go with Sensei and activate the Data Post.”

“Y—Yes!”

He was asked to do something which he had no clue about, but still, he decided to tag along with Sena-sensei.

“Just press the “O” Button continuously. The faster you press it, the faster you will be able to activate it.”

He followed Sena-sensei’s direction and with each rapid click on the “O” Button the Data Post started to transform, and something like an antennae started to grow out of it.

As he continued pressing the button, the form of the post finally got completed. At the same time the data post took its final transform, it released a light similar to a scan line.

“Ah, the map is—”

The right upper corner of the screen, which was blank a while ago, got filled up with various types of information.

On the map, the icon values 1~4 with some red spots popped up, which looked like a position indicator for AK. While on the other hand, it seemed like the value of 1~4 was indicating their position.

“It’s quite important, so keep this in mind! When you activate a data post, the radar will search the vicinity and then that area will include in your map. Also, after activating one, you could even use that Data Post to replenish your T-ENG! Kill the enemy to collect the weapons and the T-ENG out of them, Continue with the activation of the Data Post and in the end, proceed further, that is the natural flow of this game.”

Leading the way, Sugishika started to advance. But, Tendou stopped her.

“Wait, Sugishika. I have an idea. How about taking a Back Route after going back a little?”

“Back Route? Aah, Now that you mention it, there was one in this game right? You could collect various types of items there was it?”

“That’s right! As we are here already, I thought of showing Kishimine a little bit more.”

“W—well I don’t have any reason to object”

“Then it’s decided, well then everyone, Here”

Following Tendou’s direction, we started heading back.

“Is something over there?”

“There’s a hidden route here. If I am not wrong it should be somewhere around……ah, found it.”

There was a wall of a huge cliff in front of Tendou’s character. But as he looked carefully, there was a small black cave halfway up on the mountain.

“Just how will we reach there? It’s not a height which could be covered by just a jump, and it’s also not a slope where we can climb casually.”

“Try pressing the “□” Button after aiming! With that you could shoot an anchor till there!”

“A—anchor?”

“Look carefully, you do it like this!”

Sugishika’s character shot some sort of cord like thing towards the entrance of the cave.

“Heh……, that’s anchor, huh?”

The anchor pierced deep into the ice, and Sugishika easily reached to the entrance of the cave by pulling herself up on the cord.

‘Then I’ll also try doing it.’ He pressed the “□” Button after aiming carefully towards the entrance of the cave. The anchor got released and pierced into the ice. And just like her, his character too pulled himself up automatically to the entrance of the cave.

“Amazing. To think that something like this is plausible”

“Aah, you could say that diverse actions such as these, is what made this game that famous.”

Tendou who was talking about the enjoyable things in the game, as expected, appeared livelier than her usual self.

After gathering on the top, all four of them headed into the cave. And after walking a bit inside, the Stage Clear indication appeared on the screen.

“Huh? It’s over already?”

“Of course not! It’s just we entered on a different route, the real show has just begun!”

And just as Sena-sensei said, the next stage began.

What awaited them after exiting the cave was a big valley. There was this long bridge, and the other side of that bridge was a small shed.

In the surrounding of that small hut and on that bridge which was made from metal, several human figures could be seen. They were wearing the same kind of dress as them. At first glance, he thought of them as friends—but, he soon realized that he was too hasty in making his judgement.

The reason was that they started firing at them.

“Whoa, they fired at us!? The enemy is not AK alone!?”

“In this world, the battle and hunger for power is like a daily routine! Come now, let’s break through them!”

“I am gonna laugh so hard on you guys if you all die here!”

Tendou and Sugishika without even caring about the sudden enemies, were trying to break through the bridge.

“Let’s cover them, Kishimine-kun!”

“Y—Yes!”

To cover up those two, he teamed up with Sena-sensei and started firing at the enemies.

Shooting at the enemy from across the bridge with the machine gun was somewhat difficult but, maybe it was because they both were shooting with each other in sync, the enemy line-up and posture were destroyed completely, and like that they sealed the enemies counter-attack.

In the meanwhile, Tendou and Sugishika, filled in the gap.

“Eh!? Sniper!?”

Suddenly, Sugishika’s scream reached his ears. It was as if to notify the situation of a comrade who’s in a pinch. On the top screen of Kishimine, it got notified that Sugishika has dropped a lot of her LIFE force.

“What the hell is this!? For some unknown reason I took quite a damage with after getting hit with just 1 shot.”

“Ah, my bad! Didn’t I mention it before? As “normal” level of difficulty would’ve been too easy for you, so I chose “hard” instead!”

Sena-sensei answered while laughing.

“Hey!? Tell something like that beforehand!”

Continuing to play the game without even backing off due to turmoil, clearly explained how skilled she was. Sugishika used the anchor to reach the roof of that small hut, and silenced the enemy sniper with her rapid fire from the machine gun.

“Say, how are you gonna make up for this damage!”

“Hahaha, my bad! I’ll share my T-ENG with you, so let me off the hook for now! Here, Kishimine-kun you too also try doing that! Press “△” and “L1” together. As you do it, instead of the grenade, you’ll be able to equip the T-ENG injecting equipment. With that share your T-ENG with Sugishika-kun!”

“Okay, you mean like this?”

As he entered the command, just as he was told, an orange like ball shot out, and got absorbed by Sugishika’s character. Maybe Sugishika used the T-ENG to activate her Harmonizer, her LIFE value got restored soon enough.

“Well, as stretching the matter would be troublesome, I will let it pass this time. However, I will gladly allow myself to use this!”

Sugishika equipped the weapon which was lying on the roof of the shed. And it was yet again quite big of a gun.

“Sniper Rifle?” asked Tendou. “You’re supposed to be a sniper, huh?”

“Ara~ Didn’t I tell you before? That’s right, the weapon I am especially good in, is this. As it’s quite an opportunity, make sure to also remember this, I am not just an ordinary Gamer, but, a Shooter.”

“S—Shooter—……”

It sort of had a cool sound to it.

But still, he found it surprising for her to be using the Sniper Rifle, as Kishimine also had a bit of an emotional attachment with that “hard to handle” gun. In the JGBC’s Gears of War competition that happened few days ago, he, after picking up the Sniper Rifle challenged the enemy for a 1 v/s 1 duel. The Sniper Rifle’s biggest advantage is to annihilate an enemy from long range, but on the other hand, to be able to snipe an enemy from a scope who excels in quick movement and is also quite clever, is next to impossible and quite practically he couldn’t beat him at that time.

And Sugishika says that she’s quite good in using that difficult yet powerful weapon. He got interested in seeing how she will fight next.

All of them started to move further. The steep cliff and the boulders made the road really rough.

The enemy too, started to make their appearance. From halfway across the cliff of the mountain, the flower bud like shaped nest appeared and from inside it the spider like AK’s, one after another, started to gush forth.

The enemies were weak enough to be called as low life in Sugishika’s reference but, their count was just too much. The Spider like AK started to attack the group from three directions on the cliff which was quite troublesome.

“As a greeting, let me show you guys my skills! Hey you there, throw the grenade up in the air!”

“Eh? In the air?”

“Just do it, hurry up!”

“Y—Yes!”

He threw the grenade high up in the sky.

Though he threw the grenade, it would take around 3 seconds for it to blast. Even though it was thrown up in the air, for it to fall on the ground and then explode was destined. If that happens, not only the swarming AK would be destroyed but they too would get involved in the blast.

But, suddenly something unbelievable occurred.

“……Right there!”

One gunshot resounded loud in the air. It was because Sugishika used her Sniper Rifle.

At the same time, the grenade blew up in the air and almost all the surrounding AK’s got involved in the blast.

“J—just what the hell was that right now?”

“Quite commendable” Tendou admired what occurred just now. “She sniped the grenade you threw up in the air with her rifle.”

“Splendid indeed. Usually one would rapidly fire with their machine gun or would use their shotgun to perform such feat! To think that you would snipe it with your sniper rifle……!”

He finally understood what kind of a stunt she just pulled up.

“Amazing……!! To be able to snipe such a small moving target with the scope.”

“H—Hmph! It’s just that the collision detection was considerably big. Getting praised over something such as this doesn’t make me happy or anything! There, just hurry up and clean up the rest already!”

Even though she was getting praised by everyone, her attitude was cold like before. It’s just that her face seemed more perplexed than angry.

“By any chance, Is she shy……?”

He, one way or another, came to a conclusion that he couldn’t put into words.

And thus, Kishimine and the others resumed their march, but soon they noticed something strange collapsed at the bottom of the valley.

And practically too, he didn’t have anywhere to run. He was in a position where he just had half of his LIFE left. It’s true that he had a surplus of T-ENG with him, but he didn’t have any spare time to use that to restore his LIFE.

“Leave it to me, I will get you a chance!”

‘How—’ he couldn’t even finish it…

And the next moment, the screen got filled up with the blast.

“Gyaaa!?”

Kishimine’s character too also got involved in the blast. But, though he got blown off, there were no signs of any damage.

“Alright, now’s the time..!”

“Geez, you’re such a troublesome case!”

In that gap, Tendou and Sugishika aimed at the tail of the AK.

“What was that just now?!”

“It was just a VS’s Rocket Launcher. Here have another one!”

“Gyaaa!?”

His screen got covered with another blast, and he again got blown off.

However, maybe it’s because friendly fire is invalid in this game, he didn’t take any damage. Plus no matter what AK did while he was being blown off, he didn’t even take damage against them as if being invincible at that time.

And in the meantime, Tendou and Sugishika continued aiming at the orange tail of their respective targets. With each hit, their T-ENG scattered like blood, and soon the AK froze like some solid ice, and eventually broke into pieces.

“Kishimine, restore your LIFE with the T-ENG of those guys.”

“G—Gladly……”

He went through a lot but, somehow he managed to survive. That’s why he had no reason to complain regarding anything.

It was at that moment when she reported something like this.

“Oh, there’s a VS (Vital Suit) here. On top of it, it looks like this one is not broken, so you could ride it!”

“Is it okay if I ride this one?! This is the small size VS with codename “Vensa”! So I think if I install this VS build Rocket launcher in it, I will be able to fight quite flashily!”

“I don’t have any problem with it as it would be quite meaningless for a sniper like me to ride one.”

“I will also pass as I don’t think I will be able to handle it.”

“…………”

Kishimine noticed that at that moment Tendou had quite a greedy loon on her face but, as Sena-sensei already took the initiative, he couldn’t just help her this late in the topic.

Sena-sensei approached the VS and installed the Rocket launcher in it, and at last boarded it.

With a metallic voice, the Robot got activated and started moving.

‘T—this is one hell of a game……’

Beautiful graphics, Violent battles between humans and AK, Sharing T-ENG with your friends and comrades, or performing anchor moves, and one could even board a robot. What’s more is that you could de-install or install the weapons out from the robot. Kishimine had tried different type of games but, he never had played a game where you could do so much different things.

As they eventually proceeded ahead, the way started to divide and that too into 3 different paths. The left one was headed to halfway up the cliff, the middle one was just like usual headed down the valley. However, both of the roads had a big rift in the middle with a very thin bridge. The right road alone seemed to be without any particular rift in the middle.

“S—so which one is it gonna be? As expected, we would move together right?”

“No way, it would be quite troublesome if we leave any enemy behind. We should move separately from here.”

“Well then I shall go to the one in the middle! As it would be quite troublesome ascending with this giant frame!”

Sena-sensei agreed with Sugishika’s idea.

“Well I will go to the one on the right then, as I will be able to acquire quite a lot of vision there.”

After saying suddenly like that, Sugishika shot the anchor on the cliff and started climbing her way on the right one.

“Well then, Kishimine, let’s proceed our way to the left.”

“Understood!”

Being able to stay together with Tendou was the best thing he could’ve asked for. And thus, both of them together started climbing their way to the cliff.

The fierce battle started. The VS controlled by Sena-sensei commenced the fight with the enemy below the cliff, and Kishimine too, together with Tendou started shooting at the enemy which were on the other side of the bridge, so they could cross it safely.

“Can you see it, Kishimine? There’s a VS lying on the other side of the bridge, let’s board that.”

Certainly on the opposite side of the bridge, there was a VS lying on the ground which was slightly bigger than the one Sena-sensei was using.

“Understood, let’s head there then!”

Together with Tendou, he started breaking his way through the bridge.

“Be careful, the thicket around there is filled with enemies!”

And Sugishika’s warning was spot-on. There was quite a thicket on the other side of the bridge but, there were just too many enemies that were waiting for an ambush and soon the two of them got surrounded.

“Uwaa!?”

“Kuu, this is quite bad!”

There was just nowhere for them to hide themselves, which caused their LIFE to decrease quite a lot.

“Damn, even here!?”

He wondered that why didn’t he notice up until now, that the enemy was hiding even in the thicket right in front of them. On top of it the barrel in the machine was almost empty and it required an immediate reload to fire again.

However, in the midst of when the situation was getting dangerous, the enemy got blown off.

“What are you…, taking a walk in the park?!”

It was Sugishika’s voice. With that he sort of understood what happened just now. She covered them from the behind with her Sniper Rifle.

And while he was thinking, another got shot right in the head.

“Thanks for the save, Sugishika-san!”

“I—it’s not like I saved you both or something! It’s just I wanted to increase my score!”

Even with Sugishika’s covering fire, the enemy still remained. Kishimine’s LIFE was quite low and he had no time to use the harmonizer to restore his health.

Perhaps her idea was the best at that moment, so that’s why trusting her proposal for once, he as per told boarded the VS.

“Initializing”

The machine made an initializing sound, which would mean that the machine would be starting up.

“Is this……what activation is?”

He pressed the “X” Button. As he did that the engine got started, and the VS started moving.

“Oh, his name is Nida! It’s a Medium-sized VS in which you could install a maximum of 2 weapons. It’s quite a convenient VS, you know?!”

Just as Sena-sensei said, there was an absurdly big weapon called “VS Gatling Gun” installed in both of its arms.

“Fire, Kishimine! Mow them down.”

“Roger! Here goes nothing!”

Obviously, he didn’t know how to control it. But, guessing that it would be something like this, he pressed the “L2” and “R2” button simultaneously.

As he did that, the Gatling gun installed in both of the VS’s shoulders started emitting fire and the power of the flames was so fierce and dreadful that the enemies near him started to drop one by one. The defence of the VS was quite good as well, as he did receive the counter-attack a few times, but there were no signs of the unit getting damaged.

“It’s quite a chance, so I’ll also allow myself to ride in it.”

Tendou suddenly said.

‘By any chance is this a 2-man boarding VS?’— He thought at once but, Tendou instead of entering inside, hanged herself on the right shoulder of the VS’

“Amazing! You could even do something like this?!”

“To be honest, it’s not something that significant though”

Even so, she quite enjoyably, continued to shoot at the enemies while swinging.

As they continued to head on the road, eventually the 3 paths merged into one again. After cleaning-up the enemies in the surrounding area, they finally joined Sugishika and Sena-sensei.

“Huh? Sensei, what happened to your VS?”

He asked as for some reason, Sena-sensei was walking.

“Hahaha, there was an enemy VS on my side you see, so I lost mine as we were exchanging the Rocket launcher! Well that aside, let’s head ahead!”

“Yes”

Like that, as they continued their march, on the radar new red spots appeared.

“Somehow, new kinds have appeared—!?”

Two Dog-like AK that were made up of bones and on top of it, a Giant Bee who was flying up in the air spraying some sort of dangerous looking thing.

“Be careful, it’s Vodogg and Raibee!”

Sena-sensei’s sudden explanation came in.

Dog and Bee. It was quite obvious that which one of them was the Vodogg.

On the other hand, though the Raibee was flying up in the air, but, maybe because of its size, its movements were dull. And thus, the first ones to attack were—the two Vodoggs.

The body of those dogs was covered with some sort of hard shell, and it seemed that they had quite a considerable amount of stamina. On top of all those things, there were not any specific weak-points on it as well.

“It’s alright. As long as you have the firepower they are not that strong of an enemy.”

Sena-sensei’s advice was quite precise. The two Gatling guns, and the firepower of the rest of the three, was enough to incinerate the Vodoggs without even letting them do anything.

Now what remained was just the Raibee. That giant bee in the air was on stand-by and was not doing any flashy attack on them.

However, suddenly a white light started to accumulate in its rear part.

“Careful, he’s planning to release a lighting attack!”

‘Please say something like that a bit—’ before he could’ve even complained he got hit.

“Uwaa!?”

However, there were not any real signs of damage as VS yet again guarded him with its high defence.

“Aim his wings! Then, he won’t be able to fly anymore!”

“R—Roger!”

With Sugishika’s command, Kishimine and others started firing at it immediately.

And soon enough it fell onto the ground and started wriggling violently.

“Alright, I’ll deal the final blow then!”

As Tendou started filling the gap, it happened.

On the radar a new red spot appeared, which was yet another new AK.

However, that red spot was bigger than any he had seen until now.

“Be Careful! A big one is coming our way!”

Sena-sensei shouted to gather everyone’s attention! And soon enough after watching the AK which came breaking the ground, Kishimine released a scream.

“Eeeeehhhhh!? Wh— this size is not fair!”

He could tell that the Boss that Sena-sensei and others were talking about is none other than this. At any rate, he was just too damn big.

In a word, it was a giant mantis. It was 10 times the size of the VS, Kishimine was riding. Whole screen was completely filled up with just 1 AK.

“Don’t fret! The enemy is not really invincible! There, just shoot, shoot at him!”

Getting halfway desperate with Tendou’s voice, he started shooting at the enemy.

Fortunately, even that AK had a weak point. The weak point was its tail which was glowing with a bright orange colour. However, aiming right at the tail from front was hard, and that’s why no one was able to deal an effective amount of damage to him.

“Beware of the Swing!”

The giant mantis-like AK did an obvious attack considering that body of his. He mowed down the area clean with one swing.

At that moment, the one who was ahead of them was, Tendou. And as it was quite a narrow area, there was just no space for her to evade the hit.

“Damn, he got me!”

Tendou got blown up quite far and lost many LIFE points.

“Buchou!? Are you okay!?”

“I am not in any position to really say that, alright”

And soon enough the Giant AK, took a posture for his 2nd attack. Kishimine realised that if she got hit now, then, even she would not be able to make it.

But, it was at that moment when Sena-sensei suddenly shouted.

“I am counting on you, Sugishika-kun!”

“Geez, it really can’t be helped!”

Just before, that swing reached the ground.

Sena-sensei threw the grenade, and Sugishika shot at it and the blast of that grenade, made the AK to flinch.

The coordination was top-notch. It’s because those two were extremely skilled gamers, that they were able to perform such co-op play without even planning it before.

“Now, Aim whatever you have at his weak point!”

“Y—yes!”

Without even a seconds delay, he started firing rapidly with the VS’s Gatling gun.

With that the giant AK again got aggro’ed and started to swing his arms but, with the restless and continuous rapid attacks of the VS, he couldn’t hold much longer, and eventually collapsed.

“Fu, thanks for the save back then. That was quite a splendid coordination.”

Tendou activated her Harmonizer to restore her LIFE back.

“T—there was no need for me to save you all. But, even I would be troubled if you go and die on me this late on the stage.”

Sugishika gave an unnecessary excuse while turning her face.

“Well shall we go then, ladies and gentlemen?! This stage is almost over as well!”

“Wait a second there, Sensei! While we are at it let’s have Kishimine’s VS repaired as well”

On Sena-sensei’s words, Tendou responded like this.

“Repair? Even something like that is possible?”

With all that battle till now, the VS controlled by Kishimine got damaged a little. So if possible, he wanted to fix it.

“Of course it’s possible. Can you come out from your VS for a moment?”

“Y—Yes!”

Now that he thinks of, he really didn’t know how to get out from one but, as he pressed few buttons randomly, the VS dropped on his knees and he was able to come out of it.

“Alright, the rest is similar to what you did at the time of Data post.”

As he approached the VS, their appeared a message on its body saying “Press “O” Button to repair” and as he went according to the instructions, he was able to fix it’s durability in exchange for his T-ENG.”

He started to get that the degree of freedom in this game was quite high. You could use the T-ENG like this to repair the VS, or could just keep it reserved to restore your LIFE at the time of need.

“This will do for now. Now you can board it, Kishimine.”

He wanted to reply “Understood” and act accordingly at once but, then he recalled that Tendou too wanted to ride it.

“I had my fun already, now please Buchou you board it next!”

“W—what?”

Tendou got confused at such a sudden proposal but that restlessness of hers, which was just like a dog whose favourite dish has been placed in front of him, was something he couldn’t fail to miss.

“Without a doubt the VS are strong but, as it’s quite a chance I want to experience various ways of fighting. So from here on, I will walk on my feet”

“I—Is that so? Then as it’s quite a chance, I will allow myself.”

To the end, Tendou responded humbly but, her face was livelier like ‘a kid right before his trip’.

“Alright, Vital Suit Activate!”

She boarded the VS in high spirits, and activated it.

“Sorry for the wait, everyone! Well then, VS advance!”

Curiously, Kishimine tried swinging on the arm of the VS similar to what Tendou did a while ago.

‘I see, it had no deep meaning than just grabbing the arm’ However it was interesting as he was able to feel sort of a link with Tendou like this.

And soon, they entered a cave, deep inside the valley.

At this time point in time, Kishimine was already quite pleased with the game.

Beautiful graphics which were not in any way low than the “Uncharted” and “Gears of War” he played before. Humans, Giant monsters, Fierce battle against enemies in a variation rich environment, and in the end various kinds of joint struggle with friends.

He never knew that the games these days are so much high in regards to freedom. His character that was walking while exercising its ingenuity was a certain adventure novel itself.

Kishimine’s heart, was throbbing loudly with excitement.

◆

The next stage began.

As they finally came out of the cave, they found themselves at the cliff. Below the cliff was a big lake and, surrounding it were manmade structures—even something like a DAM could also be see there.

“Well now, ladies and gentlemen. Prepare yourself for the real hunt!”

As Sena-sensei said that loudly, “that thing” came from inside the lake.

“Wh—……”

Even Kishimine had a premonition that something might appear here.

But he never in his wildest dreams thought that it would be this big.

“W—what the hell is thattttt!?”

The one which came out, was a giant—No, a super-giant AK.

The appearance looked somewhat similar to that of a Mantis type AK from just a while ago.

Big 2 arms and a thin body. It’s just that as her body was inside the lake, the actual size couldn’t be calculated. And her face too was more like an ant rather than a mantis, and on the joint of her forehead and arms, nearby her antennae, an orange glowing light could be seen.

Kishimine still couldn’t believe at her size. Just a while ago, he fought a giant AK which was big enough to fit the whole screen. However the one this time was even bigger than that. Even though they were still on the cliff, she was big enough to not fit in the whole frame of the screen.

“Okay listen carefully, she’s the Queen! A “Category G”, large AK.”

Sena-sensei’s explanation came in. He couldn’t tell what exactly this “Category G” means but, he guessed that it would be based on the size. ‘She seems to be the Queen, so it means that she is the one to give birth to that Mantis like AK, huh?’

As he was thinking like that, a friendly Helicopter appeared out of nowhere in the sky.

“T—that is!?”

“It’s useless even watching it!” said Sugishika. “Let me teach you something useful. Mostly whenever a helicopter comes in a TPS and FPS games like this—”

Queen, swinged her arm on a big scale.

“—they end up crashing like that!”

Helicopter got hit by that arm. And then crashed.

“Ah, just like that!”

“Stop sightseeing and let’s go! It’s the time for the Boss hunt!”

Tendou’s VS had already started sliding through the cliff. And Sugishika and Sena-sensei too started heading there without any fear on their face.

“I—I too.”

He also had no intention of being there on the height and continuing his sightseeing. So he too, started sliding his way down the cliff, while carrying his machine gun.

He had seen drawings of the protagonist in the adventure novel fighting the giant monsters. However, controlling that protagonist and fighting against that monster is something that could be done only in games.

Just how will he fight such a giant enemy, and just how will he win against it.

Kishimine’s consciousness, started to cross its peak.

He had a special skill that was acknowledged by even Tendou and Sena-sensei. When his concentration would reach its peak, his consciousness would get absorbed in the Books or Games, and then he would become the protagonist of the story himself.

And that was something which was not an exception this time as well.

◆

“B—Big!”

I’ve had experience of this shudder before. But now as I stand right in front of her, I once again could tell that how big she was. An absurd size which was far bigger than any I had faced before.

However, even if they were big, they did have a weakness. It was the part that was glowing with the same orange colour as the T-ENG (Thermal Energy). From what I could tell, it appeared that the queen basically had 3 major weaknesses. Small antennae which were attached to her body, the giant joints of her arms, and in the end her forehead. Especially the light around her forehead was the brightest, and clearly looked like a weak point but shooting the forehead of such big AK from lower ground was very difficult.

The combi of Sena-sensei and Sugishika-san started shooting at the AK with their machine gun. And even Buchou who was right at the front of the Queen started attacking with the two Gatling guns of the VS.

“HaHahaha! Eat this to your heart’s content, you fucking AK!”

As if it was because of all the adrenaline rush of facing such an AK, Buchou was quite enjoying herself. Her appearance of rapidly firing the storm of bullets at the AK was befitting the expression of “Happy Trigger”

Watching everyone, I also started firing. If 3 People and 1 machine would fire a continuous barrage of bullets like that then, any kind of defence would appear like a thin paper.

And eventually, the weak point on her right arm started to change its colour to red. Perhaps, a lot of damage might’ve been accumulated there. And, thus we continued concentrating our fire at that location.

Soon enough, her right arm got smashed.

Maybe it was due to all the pain that she released a scream and started rampaging. If someone of that size would move like that then, there’s no way anyone could aim properly.

However, rampaging with such high build drew her stamina out. Eventually she got tired and bent her head down.

And her weak point on the forehead appeared.

“Now! Shoot with everything you’ve got there!”

Simultaneously with Sena-sensei’s order, we all started firing rain of bullets on her forehead. As our attacks showed effects, T-ENG started scattering like blood from the Queen as she quivered in pain.

‘What’s this? She doesn’t look all that strong……?’

“Is she just big”—we, who reached to such a conclusion, soon realised that we were too hasty in making our judgement.

All of a sudden, the queen started defending herself. Before we could even think “what’s she plan on doing?”, her right arm which she lost a while ago, grew back.

“What!? She regenerated it back!?”

“The enemy is sort of like a lump of T-ENG itself. So she can restore her limbs to her hearts content as long as she has T-ENG in her!”

“There’s no need to think too deep into it, we just have to keep shooting at her till she runs out of her T-ENG!”

Sena-sensei and Sugishika-san said.

I see, as there’s a way for us to restore our LIFE back by using the T-ENG, so for AK too, it would be something similar like that.

“We’re gonna aim at that small antennae part next! Concentrate your firepower there!”

Buchou, yet again, calmly instructed us to shoot the next target.

With things turning out like that, I ended up following everyone, and thus, concentrated all my firepower at the antennae which were attached to the body of the Queen.

As expected of the extreme firepower of the VS (Vital Suit), the antennae dropped one after another. Queen started to wriggle in pain, and finally after losing more than half of her antennae she lost to pain and dropped her head again.

Without a moments delay we aimed with our guns at her forehead and started shooting at it. With an incredible force, the T-ENG started to scatter everywhere again.

But even after that, the Queen didn’t surrender. And once again she shook her body and restored the antennae she just lost.

On top of it, some kind of unexpected accident occurred in the VS Buchou was riding.

“There’s no need to be concerned about that, and continue firing. Next aim at the left arm!”

Sena-sensei shouted. We could do nothing except firing now. So we continued to pull the trigger and did nothing else.

Maybe it was because of our decreased firepower that it took a lot to break that left arm of the Queen.

As a result of that, the queen who was just receiving one sided damage till now, as if to extract revenge, switched to offence. She raised her right arm high up in the air, and striked at us.

And the target was—Buchou’s VS. In Queen’s eyes, that would’ve been a natural target as we relied on VS’s firepower a lot.

There was no way for a slow-witted VS like that to evade a strike of that speed. The impact of the attack echo’ed quite a lot in the vicinity, and Buchou’s VS took heavy damage.

“B—Buchou! Repair it!”

“There’s no time to be doing something like that, VS in the end are use’n’throw weapons after all!”

Queen yet again swinged her arm. Tendou didn’t even think about dodging it this time and just kept shooting with Gatling gun at her antennae.

Queen once again twisted in pain as most of her antennae got destoryed.

However, it seemed that this time she bore that pain of hers. And thus, raised her left arm upwards——and swinged it in the direction of VS.

VS took a great fall that caused sparking in varius parts of its body and then the airframe started emitting light from various places..

Even I knew what all those signs meant.

“I—It’s going to blast!?”

“Don’t get close, or you will also get dragged into it!”

Right after Buchou shouted, the VS released huge amounts of flame and got blown into smithereens.

Fortunately, Buchou managed to escape in time. But, as if waiting for that particular timing, Queen’s second attack came in.

“Shi—”

As she just escaped out from the VS and was gaining back her posture.

She had no spare time to do an evade action.

“Damn, that’s how far it’s gonna be, huh……?”

I certainly heard Buchou’s voice as if she resigned to her fate.

The Queen shook the ground with her swing.

And after the big swing, what remained on the ground was just the collapsed body of Buchou.

“Buchou!? Buchou—!!”

I quickly ran towards her as I thought that she will be alright if I shared my T-ENG with her.

“What the hell are you doing?! She’s already dead, but the queen is still alive! So resume your firing already!”

“It’s just as Sugishika-kun said, Don’t let yourself be concerned about the corpse and fight!”

“Ku……”

I couldn’t say anything back to the cold-hearted opinion of those two as they were both right.

Buchou sacrificed even herself to deal more damage to the queen and maybe it was the result of that, that the left arm of the queen had changed from orange to red.

And when the three of us concentrated our fire there, it broke quite easily.

Queen’s head again bent towards the ground and without a moments delay we started pouring the bullets on her forehead.

But even after that—Queen once again stood up. She restored that left arm of hers and, looked down on us.

“I—Is she immortal or something?”

“Just keep firing, that’s your only way out of here! I am gonna throw the ball! Shoot it!”

Sena-sensei’s voice resounded as he threw the orange coloured grenade in the air.

If it was thrown normally then, without any doubt it would’ve exploded after getting dropped in the lake and would’ve done seriously nothing. However, the thrown grenade exploded on the place which was very much near to the antennae. It must’ve been Sugishika-san sniping it again.

On top of it, we continued our firing. Soon the antennae broke and Queen started to rampage.

I wanted to shout that “Just shut the hell up already”. However, she restored her antennae like nothing, and stood in front of us yet again.

Probably even the enemy was having the same thoughts as us as she demonstrated quite an outrageous attack.

Right after that moment, she deeply inhaled and swinged.

She released an ice breath from her mouth and froze the area in the surrounding.

“Whoaa! What the hell is this!?”

I panicked, as my body instantly froze in the ice, and took heavy damge. On top of all that I couldn’t even move.

“Just keep moving your body! That will break the ice!”

Following Sena-sensei’s advice, I frantically started to move my body with everything I had.

“The next attack is coming! Hurry up and run!”

My whole body shuddered.

The queen was ready to swing her right arm, but, here I was still freezed up and in a position where I couldn’t have moved.

“S—Shit!”

I frantically tried moving my body.

As soon as I got out of the ice, her attack hit the ground. It happened almost at the same time .

Getting saved by a hair’s breadth was something what this could be termed as I evaded her blunt attack with my evade action.

It was beause of continuous firing from both Sugishika-san and Sena-sensei in the meantime that her right arm again shattered.

The queen groaned in pain. I found that gap quite efficient and activated my Harmonizer to heal the frostbite. But, just like me, Queen too restored her right hand and stood in front of us.

Queen shook her body. No matter how you looked at it, it was a new attack.

Something got thrown at us from her back.

It were the icicles. She threw the icicles which were even bigger than the Medium sized VS at us.

“Uwa!?”

Everything about her (Queen) was insanely absurd. The icicles hit the nearby ground and scattered. My will to not surrender and die somehow, made me able to dodge that attack.

“Damn! That got me!”

However, it looked like everyone wasn’t able to dodge that, as Sena-sensei took quite a damage.

On top of it, Queen was still not done and readied her giant arms for a swing. Plus, for not a vertical but a horizontal attack.

And casually, she released a swing.

The space was very narrow from the start and if she attacked horizontally like that, it would leave no space for us to run. There was just one possible way to evade—that would be Rolling onto the ground at the right time.

For me to evade that, It must’ve been because of luck or something.

“Dammittttt!”

“S—Sena-sensei!?”

However, it seemed that Sena-sensei was still busy fixing his injuries he got a while ago because of icicles, and now a mow down attack like that made it impossible for him to evade that.

His body rolled on the ground like a doll and never moved again.

“Kuu, as expected this is really quite bad……! Even here T-ENG is……!”

As I turned and looked at her, I found out that even she was seriously injured.

“Sugishika-san, use mine instead!”

As I prepared my T-ENG injecting equipment, Sugishika-san said.

“H—Hey!? I am fine here, rather worry about yourself!”

“Isn’t it obvious that it’s better for you to survive than me!? It’s fine, if it’s just avoiding the attacks, I will somehow manage!”

“……Fine, there’s no room for an argument here is it”

Sugishika-san activated her harmonizer and restored her LIFE back.

And yet again, the fight against the Queen resumed.

“Having said that, it’s still tough fighting against her with just two people isn’t it……!?”

When we were fighting as four people, it was rather equal. But as the only remaining ones are me and Sugishika-san, it was rather hard.

“Damn, if only I had more ammos……”

However, at that moment, I discovered something strange.

It was that Sugishika-san was using a machine gun, which was quite obvious as she couldn’t use a sniper rifle while evading Queen’s fierce attacks.

“Sugishika-san! You still have bullets left for your Sniper Rifle!?”

“Well I do but, it’s impossible using it against this guy!”

Found it. The way to fill in the gap of firepower.

“I have an idea! Sugishika-san, you retreat and cover me with your Sniper rifle, while I will go ahead and aggro all of her attacks!”

“It’s absurd! I can’t even imagine a novice like you evading her attacks forever! Plus, in order to aggro all her attacks, you have to keep on attacking her continously, you know!?”

“Even if that’s the case there’s just no other way around, we have no choice but to try it!”

Sugishika-san took just a second to think about it.

“Fine, go ahead and try then! In case you failed, I am gonna laugh so hard on you and your pathetic idea!”

Sugishika-san fell back. There were just cliffs in the surroundings, but now as I looked back again, there were a few scaffolds midway between some cliffs. As the distance was too far to be covered by bare hands, she used the anchor and climbed her way on one of the platforms.

I, playing my part as a decoy, started gazing at the Giant Queen. But Queen didn’t seem to care about it.

So I threw a grenade at her. It was not so smooth like Sugushika-san, but I made it explode with my machine-gun.

And just as planned, it drew queen’s attention towards me.

“……Here she comes!”

That vertical swing came right at me but I evaded that by taking a step back.

“Kuu!”

And right after gaining my posture, I started to retaliate with my machine gun! Controlling the recoil from the gun, I continued to aim the weak point of the Queen. However, as I was alone, I just couldn’t deal enough damage.

It was at that moment.

From the weak area around her forehad, T-ENG scattered in the air.

It must’ve been Sugishika-san.

Queen’s weakness was her forehead. However, to aim that one must first weaknen her by dealing enough damage at the antennae or the arms so that she can hang her head down.

However what Sugishika-san was doing, was aiming directly at Queen’s forehead. The Queen who was not weakened was moving her body quite actively. Aiming that trembling head of the queen, would’ve been impossible even with the rapid-fire of the machine-gun. However Sugishika-san was most certainly piercing that forehead of hers with precise snipping, one shot after another.

Maybe Queen had realized her mistake of taking her lightly, as she turned her face towards her and inhaled greatly.

It’s was the Ice-breath. Her hands might not reach that far, but that certainly could.

However that attack was quite straightforward, and as it was from quite a distance she got enough time to evade it by rolling on the ground.

“Don’t you dare ignore me!”

To draw her attention towards me again, I once again threw the grenade at her. And made it explode from the rapid fire from the machine-gun.

Getting irritated, she faced me again.

And in that time, Sugishika-san sniped her again.

Once again, getting hit on the forehead, Queen faltered.

“Uwaaa!”

Without a moments delay even I started firing from my machine gun. Quite undauntedly, Queen launched her arms in my direction, but I yet again evaded the hit by a hair’s breadth.

I didn’t have any T-ENG with me at that moment, so getting hit once would have been the done deal for me!

But it’s because I was in a position like that, I was able to pay attention to her actions quite greatly. Queen was big and thus her attacks too were quite powerful. But because she was big, there was always some sort of sign or hint before each action.

As long as I could see that, I could basically tell what kind of attack she was gonna throw at me next. The rest was just evading that somehow.

As we were doing that, we gained a bit advantage for a while. Queen getting sniped on her forehead again and again scattered T-ENG.

Which obviously made her very weak. But, at that moment, something terrible occurred.

“Crap, I am out of ammo!”

The keystone of our attack, the Sniper rifle was now out of ammo.

“This is really bad! Even I don’t have much left……!”

As one would expect, there’s no way we could’ve fought without the weapons. And unintentionally my face started showing the signs of despair.

However at that moment, a miracle happened.

“Use my weapon on the ground!”

I thought I heard Buchou’s voide from the Heavens.

“That’s right, how of all people I could’ve forgotton it!”

Sugishika jumped from the scaffold and ran to the place where Buchou’s body was lying.

As we were all quite pre-occupied fighting the Queen, we didn’t realize that there was a machine gun lying there. As Buchou was in her VS most of the time, the ammo shouldn’t have been a problem.

However, as if to stop us from having our way, Queen shook her whole body greatly.

“Watch out! She’s attacking!”

I warned Sugishika-san, but as she was in the middle of picking up the weapon, she was not in any position to evade that attack.

“Kuu!”

To save her, I had no other choice but to make Queen flinch from my attack. But, even I had less than 10 shots left in my gun.

However, there was one another way.

If I could throw a grenade between me and Sugishika-san before Queen reached her……

Sugishika-san picked the momento of Buchou.

Queen made a big swing.

And I threw a grenade.

(Explosion)

The explosion from such short distance also ended up being fatal for me. However, that blast barely saved Sugishika-san from the Queen’s attack.

“Hey, Kishimine!?”

“I…… leave the rest to you……”

For me who bathed in that kind of blast directly, I had no power to stand my ground.

With a big explosion, I rolled on the ground. However, in the end, sacrificing my life linked us all to our last hope.

“Kuu, something like thisssssss!”

Sugishika-san frustatingly started firing relentlessly with that machine gun.

Queen’s right arm, and her antenna broke which caused her to bend her head again, and then Sugishika-san pounded her head with a rain of bullets.

The Queen’s forehead started to release huge amounts of T-ENG, and in the end, she started to scream in agony which sounded like as if she was close to her death

And at the same time her giant body, as if turned into a stone sculpture, stopped moving at all.

I sort of understood what it meant. She had lost too much of her T-ENG. Not only she couldn’t restore her body parts anymore, but she couldn’t even replenish her life force.

“The End”

As Sugishika-san said that, she instantly pulled the trigger.

And a loud voice of a bullet getting shot resounded in the air.

Queen’s giant body scattered into small pieces.

At the same time as I ascertained that happening.

I lost my consciousness.

◆

“Fuu, it’s finally ended.”

After managing to beat the Queen somehow, Sugishika Madoka took a breath.

For her, playing LosPla2 was something she had not done in quite a while and that too on Hard mode. So that’s why she couldn’t shake off this feeling of putting up a clumsy play.

“Hmm, so in the end, the one to survive was you alone after all, huh??”

“Indeed. To think that you would snipe the Queen’s forehead directly.”

As she got praised so honestly like that, she lost words.

“H—Hmph! It was really not something great like that. That aside, what happened to him?”

She pointed at Kishimine who was seated right besides her.

For some odd reasons Kishimine, as if had lost consciousness, was out cold on the seat.

“Ah don’t mind him, it’s like a usual thing for him”

“What? Getting fainted is like usual? What is he sick or something?”

“There’s this special skill he has. As his concentration reaches its peak while playing games, he turns into the protagonist of the game itself”

“What?”

Sugishika was at a loss for words.

Turning into the protagonist himself. There is no way, something like that— she just couldn’t brush it off like that in her usual way.

“……It’s quite likely”

She recalled the Gaming tournament at America—AGBC. She indeed saw many gamers there with similar state.

“So to summarize, you mean it like this? As he died in the game, he lost his consciousness in real?”

“Well, something around those lines”

“Didn’t he show quite an interesting play in the game!? Well it’s true that he didn’t achieve quite a whole lot but, at the time of the Queen fight, he was the only one who hardly got hit from her attacks!”

She got taken aback by Sena-sensei’s words.

“……Now that you mention it, it’s true.”

And now as she thinks back, the reason he died was due to his suicidal bombing. Even she herself got hit from the Queen, badly enough to make him share his T-ENG with her.

Tendou tapped his shoulder.

“All right. It’s time to wake up now Kishimine. The game is already over.”

Part 3

As Kishimine opened his eyes, he found the beautiful face of Tendou looking at him.

“Uwa? H—Huh!? Buchou!? What happened to the Queen!?”

“That’s quite a usual reaction isn’t it? If it’s about Queen then Sugishika put an end to her.”

“Heh……?”

He recalled faintly.

“Now that I think of, certainly Sugishika-san defeated the Queen with her last hit……”

He suddenly realised that she was looking at him with suspicious eyes. Well it was reasonable too as he fainted right in the middle of playing a game.

“I—I am sorry for making you see something unpleasant”

“It’s not like I care about all that. That aside, is it true that you can turn into the character inside the game?”

“Ah, did you hear it? Yeah, I doubt you will believe it though……”

“……Not really”

The words that came from her mind were not of denial but rather of affirmation.

“If you are a gamer then it’s quite natural for you to get immersed inside the game. I see, so that’s why you were able to survive till the end against that Hard-mode Queen in your first try……?”

For now, he became extremely happy that she was able to understand him. But then, he remembered about a certain grave fact, the basic reason for playing the game together with Sugishika-san.

“Ah, that’s right. More than that, Sugishika-san, will it really be a no……? As the three of us ended up dying and all……

As he asked, for some unknown reason Sugishika inclined her head in confusion.

“What are you talking about?”

“Even if you ask me that……It’s regarding whether you will join this club or not”

“I see, so you really forgot about that, huh?” Tendou joined. “Wasn’t today’s gaming session itself based on whether you will join the club or not? So how about it, I now know how good you really are. Well obviously I can’t force you or anything but, as long as you are fine with it, I certainly want you in the club”

“…………”

Sugishika, after thinking for a second, shook her head.

“Obviously it’s a no, for something like that. After all, the one to live till the end was me alone wasn’t it? I said that from start haven’t I? That I will not team up with someone who can’t even clear a game such as this!”

“Well, I wonder about that!?”

At this crucial point, the one to say that was Sena-sensei.

“Didn’t you too just barely manage to withstand till the end, because of that T-ENG Kishimine-kun shared with you! So I doubt that you are in any position to look down on others like that!”

Sugishika flinched as Sena-sensei rubbed salt on her wounds.

“I—it’s not like I asked him or anything! It was just him giving it to me of his own accord!”

“But, if it was not for that, it would’ve been very hard for you!?”

“Well……maybe but”

“Sugishika”

Tendou suddenly called her.

“As for me, I think that it’s much more fun if you play a game with many people. Answer this seriously, how was today’s game? Wasn’t it quite interesting facing an enemy with four people like that?”

“Now don’t say that it wasn’t! As you got so immersed in the game that you even forgot the reason why we played this game”

“T—that is……”

Getting cornered like that, Sugishika was not sure what to say.

“Getting to enjoy the game is what it is important in gaming! Well certainly our skills might not be good enough to satisfy you. That’s why I won’t ask you to join the team immediately. But, as a fellow gamer, if you get to enjoy the game together with us……then it’s quite an opportunity, how about associating with us a bit longer?”

“This is so U—unfair of you all, to corner me and changing the conversation like that!”

Sugishika just managed to answer like that.

Her point was quite reasonable too. From “Who’s good in games and who’s bad in games” kind of conversation, it got changed to “The game is enjoyable or not”.

However, Kishimine didn’t think that she really hated the change of conversation.

“That’s right. At start, even I had my mind completely occupied with just how I should make you approve of me. But, as I was enjoying myself after riding that robot, and fighting against the giant monster, something like that became trivial. So, how about it? As 3 are better than 2, I think that it’d more fun to play a game with 4 people, plus, I also have various things I want you to teach me……”

“……Ah—Geez, I get it already! You guys really can’t be helped can you?”

With an “Hmph” Sugishika said, folding her arms and facing in the different direction.

“Well, fine then. It looks like the equipment here is all in order. It may not be too big of a difference for me to play at home or at school, and even though it’s just to not make my after-school go to waste, there might be some worth to it!”

Tendou face suddenly glared.

As at that moment, yet another comrade joined to play the game together.

“I see, very well said. Then let my Modern Game Club welcome your enrolment.”

“I—I’ll just be here to show my face!? It’s not like I have any intention of getting along with you all!”

To those Welcoming words of Tendou, for some reason, she answered in a rough way like that.

“Hahaha! What, there’s not much difference in the both!”

Like that, Sena-sensei pushed a pen forcibly in her hands.

“In any case, you were fated to join this club! Here, quickly sign here!”

“Eh—Wai— what the hell is this? For some reason its written Marriage Registration here though!?”

“Uh-Oh, I did it again, huh?! Here, this one is the official Club Application form! Just sign this quickly!”

“I—I still haven’t said that I am gonna join!? Wait, don’t make me forcibly sign like that! Wai— A—ah!?”

“Hahaha! With that, the four members have finally gathered!”

Sena-sensei’s laugh continued for a while.

On the application with an earthworm like handwriting “Sugishika Madoka” was forcibly written, and like that Kishimine and others welcomed their fourth member.